System and method for pre distortion and iterative compensation for nonlinear distortion in system employing FTN symbol transmission rates

1. An apparatus comprising: a signal input configured to receive a source digital data signal comprising a plurality of source digital data symbols; an encoder configured to receive the source digital data signal and to encode the source digital data signal to generate a corresponding encoded digital signal; a modulator configured to receive the encoded digital signal and to modulate the encoded digital signal for transmission over a satellite communications channel by mapping each source digital data symbol to a respective signal constellation point of an applied signal constellation to generate a modulated signal; a pre-distorter configured to receive the modulated signal and to pre-distort the modulated signal based on a distortion estimate to generate a pre-distorted signal; a filter configured to receive the pre-distorted signal and to filter the pre-distorted signal to generate a filtered signal; and a transmitter configured to receive the filtered signal and to frequency translate and amplify the filtered signal to generate a transmission signal for transmission via an uplink channel to a satellite; and wherein, to increase system throughput, the source digital data signal is processed through the apparatus and the resulting transmission signal is generated based on a transmission symbol rate that is configured as a faster than Nyquist (FTN) symbol rate 1/τ that is greater than one, and wherein the distortion estimate is configured to pre-compensate at least for distortion that would result from the transmission of the modulated signal via the uplink channel to the satellite.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein, for pre-distorting the modulated signal, the pre-distorter is further configured to pre-compensate for distortion that would result from one or more of further processing by at least one transponder of the satellite for transmission to a receiver apparatus via a satellite downlink channel and further processing by the receiver apparatus.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein, for pre-distorting the modulated signal, the pre-distorter is configured to estimate distortion that would result from passing the encoded digital signal through one or more of the filter, the transmitter, a downlink transponder of the satellite and a filter of a receiver apparatus, and to subtract a factor of the estimated distortion from each symbol of the modulated signal.

4. The apparatus of claim 3 , wherein each pre-distorted symbol of the modulated signal can be expressed as ã k =a k (τ) −λ 1 ·d k , where 1/τ is the FTN symbol rate, a k (τ) is the k th symbol, d k is the estimate of the distortion and λ is a scale factor.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the pre-distorter comprises a multi-stage pre-distorter, and the pre-distorter is configured to apply the pre-distortion repeatedly in a multi-stage pre-distortion process.

6. The apparatus of claim 5 , wherein, for pre-distorting the modulated signal via the multi-stage pre-distortion process, the pre-distorter is configured to: in a first stage, estimate a first-stage distortion that would result from passing the encoded digital signal through one or more of the filter, the transmitter, a downlink transponder of the satellite and a filter of a receiver apparatus, and subtract a factor of the estimated distortion from each symbol of the modulated signal to generate a first-stage pre-distorted signal; and in a second stage, estimate a second-stage distortion that would result from passing the first-stage pre-distorted signal through one or more of the filter, the transmitter, the downlink transponder of the satellite and the filter of the receiver apparatus, and subtract a factor of the estimated second-stage distortion from each symbol of the first-stage pre-distorted signal to generate a second-stage pre-distorted signal.

7. The apparatus of claim 6 , wherein the multi-stage pre-distortion process is performed for a predetermined number of stages, wherein the estimation of the distortion for a current stage is based on a pre-distorted signal of the previous stage, and a factor of the estimated distortion for the current stage is subtracted from each symbol of the pre-distorted signal of the previous stage to generate a current-stage pre-distorted signal.

8. The apparatus of claim 7 , wherein each pre-distorted symbol of the modulated signal can be expressed as ã k (s) =a k (τ) −λ s ·d k (s) , where 1/τ is the FTN symbol rate, a k (τ) is the k th symbol as pre-distorted via the previous stage of the multi-stage pre-distortion process, d k (s) is the estimate of the distortion for the current stage of the multi-stage pre-distortion process and λ s is a scale factor for the current stage of the multi-stage pre-distortion process.

9. The apparatus of claim 7 , wherein the predetermined number of stages is based on a desired quality of performance and a desired spectral shape of the transmitted signal.

10. A method comprising: receiving a source digital data signal comprising a plurality of source digital data symbols; encoding the source digital data signal to generate a corresponding encoded digital signal; modulating the encoded digital signal for transmission over a wireless communications channel by mapping each source digital data symbol to a respective signal constellation point of an applied signal constellation to generate a modulated signal; pre-distorting the modulated signal based on a distortion estimate to generate a pre-distorted signal; filtering the pre-distorted signal to generate a filtered signal; and frequency translating and amplifying the filtered signal to generate a transmission signal for transmission via an uplink channel to a satellite; and wherein, to increase system throughput, the source digital data signal is processed to generate the transmission signal based on a transmission symbol rate that is configured as a faster than Nyquist (FTN) symbol rate 1/τ that is greater than one, and wherein the distortion estimate is configured to pre-compensate at least for distortion that would result from the transmission of the modulated signal via the uplink channel to the satellite.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein, the pre-distortion of the modulated signal further comprises pre-compensating for distortion that would result from one or more of further processing by at least one transponder of the satellite for transmission to a receiver device via a satellite downlink channel and further processing by the receiver device.

12. The method of claim 10 , wherein, the pre-distortion of the modulated signal comprises estimating distortion that would result from passing the encoded digital signal through one or more of the filtering, the frequency translation and amplification, a downlink transponder of the satellite and a filtering by a receiver apparatus, and subtracting a factor of the estimated distortion from each symbol of the modulated signal.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein each pre-distorted symbol of the modulated signal can be expressed as ã k =a k (τ) −λ 1 ·d k , where 1/τ is the FTN symbol rate, a k (τ) is the k th symbol, d k is the estimate of the distortion and λ is a scale factor.

14. The method of claim 10 , wherein the pre-distortion is performed repeatedly in a multi-stage pre-distortion process.

15. The method of claim 14 , wherein the multi-stage pre-distortion process comprises: in a first stage, estimating a first-stage distortion that would result from passing the encoded digital signal through one or more of the filtering, the frequency translation and amplification, a downlink transponder of the satellite and a filtering by a receiver apparatus, and subtracting a factor of the estimated distortion from each symbol of the modulated signal to generate a first-stage pre-distorted signal; and in a second stage, estimating a second-stage distortion that would result from passing the first-stage pre-distorted signal through one or more of the filtering, the frequency translation and amplification, a downlink transponder of the satellite and a filtering by a receiver apparatus, and subtracting a factor of the estimated second-stage distortion from each symbol of the first-stage pre-distorted signal to generate a second-stage pre-distorted signal.

16. The method of claim 15 , wherein the multi-stage pre-distortion process is performed for a predetermined number of stages, wherein the estimation of the distortion for a current stage is based on a pre-distorted signal of the previous stage, and a factor of the estimated distortion for the current stage is subtracted from each symbol of the pre-distorted signal of the previous stage to generate a current-stage pre-distorted signal.

17. The method of claim 16 , wherein each pre-distorted symbol of the modulated signal can be expressed as ã k (s) =a k (τ) −λ s ·d k (s) , where 1/τ is the FTN symbol rate, a k (τ) is the k th symbol as pre-distorted via the previous stage of the multi-stage pre-distortion process, d k (s) is the estimate of the distortion for the current stage of the multi-stage pre-distortion process and λ s is a scale factor for the current stage of the multi-stage pre-distortion process.

18. The apparatus of claim 16 , wherein the predetermined number of stages is based on a desired quality of performance and a desired spectral shape of the transmitted signal.

19. A system comprising: a transmitter device, wherein the transmitter device comprises, a signal input configured to receive a source digital data signal comprising a plurality of source digital data symbols, an encoder configured to receive the source digital data signal and to encode the source signal to generate a corresponding encoded digital signal, a modulator configured to receive the encoded digital signal and to modulate the encoded digital signal for transmission over a wireless communications channel by mapping each source digital data symbol to a respective signal constellation point of an applied signal constellation to generate a modulated signal, a pre-distorter configured to receive the modulated signal and to pre-distort the modulated signal based on a distortion estimate to generate a pre-distorted signal; a filter configured to receive the pre-distorted signal and to filter the pre-distorted signal to generate a filtered signal, and a transmitter configured to receive the filtered signal and to frequency translate and amplify the filtered signal to generate a transmission signal for transmission via an uplink channel to a satellite, wherein, to increase system throughput, the source digital data signal is processed through the apparatus and the resulting transmission signal is generated based on a transmission symbol rate that is configured as a faster than Nyquist (FTN) symbol rate 1/τ that is greater than one, and wherein the distortion estimate is configured to pre-compensate at least for distortion that would result from the transmission of the modulated signal via the uplink channel to the satellite; and a receiver device configured to receive a signal transmitted from the satellite via a downlink channel, wherein the received signal reflects the transmission signal as received by the satellite, wherein the received signal includes one or more of linear inter-symbol interference (ISI) effects induced based on the faster-than-Nyquist (FTN) symbol rate, and non-linear interference effects induced based on high-power amplification by the satellite for the transmission via the downlink channel, wherein the receiver is configured to process the received signal based on a plurality of decoding iterations, and wherein the receiver comprises a likelihood metric processor configured to generate a set of soft information of a current decoding iteration based on a current estimate of the source signal and a final set of soft information from a previous decoding iteration, wherein the current estimate of the source signal is based on an estimate of the linear ISI effects and the non-linear interference effects, which is based on the final set of soft information from the previous decoding iteration.

20. The system of claim 19 , wherein: for pre-distorting the modulated signal, the pre-distorter is configured to estimate distortion that would result from passing the encoded digital signal through one or more of the filter, the transmitter, a downlink transponder of the satellite and a filter of the receiver device, and to subtract a factor of the estimated distortion from each symbol of the modulated signal the pre-distorter comprises a multi-stage pre-distorter, and the pre-distorter is configured to apply the pre-distortion repeatedly in a multi-stage pre-distortion process; the multi-stage pre-distortion process is performed for a predetermined number of stages, wherein the estimation of the distortion for a current stage is based on a pre-distorted signal of the previous stage, and a factor of the estimated distortion for the current stage is subtracted from each symbol of the pre-distorted signal of the previous stage to generate a current-stage pre-distorted signal; and the predetermined number of stages is based on a desired quality of performance and a desired spectral shape of the transmitted signal.